Young Leadership Council

Background

Young Leadership Council (YLC) is a New Orleans-based nonprofit organization created to develop leadership through community projects. YLC recruits and retains young professionals to New Orleans and has a positive impact on the quality of life in the region. The oldest independent young professionals' organization in the country, YLC has raised more than $25 million to support community projects in and around the New Orleans area since its founding in 1986.

Challenge

Before hiring Bellwether Technology, YLC had an information technology infrastructure suitable for a larger, more traditional organization. With only four in-house employees, this larger infrastructure was not only more than the organization needed, but it also hindered YLC's operations with many more costs than necessary -- a big problem for a nonprofit organization with a limited budget. YLC's leadership believed that something more suited to the organization's size and progressive nature was possible, but they did not know what the solution might be or where to start in finding it.

Solution

Bellwether Technology immediately revamped YLC's existing infrastructure by instituting cloud-based email and advanced file-sharing capabilities. In addition, YLC signed up for Bellwether Technology's activenet soho service, tailored to fit exactly what YLC needed in terms of guaranteed monthly support and available resources. Bellwether Technology also recommended several major changes to help YLC cut unnecessary costs.

Return

Bellwether Technology's recommendations and implementations have kept YLC working smoothly, while allowing the nonprofit to work in an IT environment suited for the organization's size and needs. YLC benefited both technically and financially by following Bellwether Technology's recommendations, saving hundreds of dollars per month -- not including savings associated with reduced downtime. Not only does the organization have a much more advanced and efficient IT infrastructure, but it now also has the technical components of a disaster recovery plan in place thanks to the new setup. Bellwether Technology stepped in and completely overhauled YLC's processes, leading to reduced IT management cost and no downtime. Today, YLC is able to focus on its mission without having to worry about any technical difficulties.